Addis Ababa: The development comes as UN Secretary-General António Guterres cautioned that conflict-driven hunger is spreading from Gaza to Sudan and beyond. Hunger fuels instability and undermines peace. We must never accept hunger as a weapon of war, he said in a video message to the UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake in Addis Ababa.

According to United Nations, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, cited reports on Monday that more children have died of hunger, expressing hope to receive permission to bring in thousands of trucks loaded with food, medicine, and hygiene supplies that Israel has blocked from entering Gaza for months. This follows a significant policy change over the weekend when the Israeli army announced a daily humanitarian pause from 10 am to 8 pm local time in areas where its troops are not active. Child malnutrition has been increasing in Gaza, particularly since 2 March when Israel imposed a near-total blockade, UNRWA stated.

The humanitarian pause applies to a narrow strip of Gaza, encompassing Al-Mawasi in the southwest, Deir Al-Balah in the centre, and Gaza City in the north, according to a map provided by Israeli authorities. On Sunday, a convoy of more than 100 trucks carrying aid supplies reportedly entered the Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the south.

While welcoming this development, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, emphasized the immense scale of needs on the ground in Gaza. "One in three people hasn't eaten for days," insisted Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Chief and head of OCHA. "People are being shot just trying to get food to feed their families. Children are wasting away. This is what we face on the ground right now."

In his statement, Mr. Fletcher acknowledged progress on the aid front but stressed the vast amounts of aid needed to prevent famine and a catastrophic health crisis. He emphasized that UN agencies and the humanitarian community remain mobilized to save as many lives as possible.

Alongside Israel's temporary aid increase in Gaza, customs restrictions on food, medicine, and fuel from Egypt have reportedly been lifted. Secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys have also been designated. "We need sustained action and fast, including quicker clearances for convoys going to the crossing and dispatching into Gaza," Mr. Fletcher said, underscoring the need for multiple trips per day to the crossings, safe routes avoiding crowded areas, and no more attacks on people gathering for food.

Meanwhile, in New York, France and Saudi Arabia launched a new diplomatic initiative on Monday to push for a two-State solution between Israel and the Palestinian people. The three-day conference begins as President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will formally recognize Palestine in September, marking the first G7 nation to do so. A UN General Assembly resolution from 1947 established the partition of Palestine—then under British mandate—into two independent States, one Jewish and the other Arab. The State of Israel was declared in 1948.